Rare Brandy

Cafe Society
1

I purchased an older looking bottle of pear brandy at an antique shop yesterday and I am having a hard time finding information on the brandies quality, value, and whether or not this is rare. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The brandy has a full sized pear inside the bottle and is called Le Bon Pere William.

The pear gets inside the bottle by placing the bottle over the budding fruit the pear grows inside the bottle, then the distilled spirit fills the bottle and is corked and sold. I believe this brandy is from Switzerland. Below is all the information on the label.

Across the top reads “La fine eau-de-vie de poires William du Valais”

in the middle reads 43 vol% 70 Cl

I understand all of this information, but not the information at the bottom. It reads,“Les Fils du Germanier Vetroz-Valais Suisse”
The only information I can find is that 50000 or so pears are bottled every year but of those maybe 10000 survive and make pear in the bottle brandy. More brandy is made, but without the pear in the bottle. It also seems none is imported to America. Could be wrong there. Any practical information on this would help greatly.

Cheers,
Floundered

2

Germanier Vetroz-Valais. It’s a vineyard owned by the Germanier (fils du means sons of) family in the Swiss state of Vetroz-Valais.

3

I doubt very much if it has any value. Growing pears in a bottle is easy and many people have done it.

Here is a video: How to Grow a Pear in a Bottle (video) – Cooking Up a Story

4

Moved to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

5

If you bought it at an antique shop, I have my doubts about it being any good or of any value.

6

It’s not rare, but it is fairly expensive for what it is. I suggest you drink it - those Valais eaux de vie are usually quite good (I acquired a taste for them while skiing there!).

I believe it retails for about $50 a bottle or so.

http://www.jrgermanier.ch/en/vin-bon_pere_william_avec_poire_dans_la_bouteille_43.html - price is 48 Swiss francs, which are more or less at par with the US dollar.

Here’s a cite saying much the same thing: http://www.justanswer.com/antiques/5yt27-bottle-le-bon-pere-william-no-idea.html

7

Thank you for the links. Very helpful.

Cheers!